In Democracy Debate, Scholar Says Tycoons Control Hong Kong’s Destiny

Pro-China protesters, opponents of the pro-democracy ‘Occupy Central’ movement, march behind a banner reading ‘Reunited Families Support Group, Pro-Universal Suffrage, Make a First Step for Peaceful Universal Suffrage’, in Central District, Hong Kong, August 17, 2014.

European Pressphoto Agency

What should universal suffrage in Hong Kong look like? According to one top mainland Chinese legal scholar, any future democratic system should ensure the interests of the city’s wealthy businessmen are protected.

All summer, a debate has raged in Hong Kong over how the city’s democratic reform should proceed. Beijing has said that direct elections for the city’s top post can begin in 2017, but many democratic activists in Hong Kong fear any system will involve a screening of pro-democracy candidates Beijing doesn’t agree with. The central government’s framework, expected to be announced Sunday, is widely expected to essentially bar any democratic candidates from running.

On Thursday while visiting Hong Kong, Tsinghua University School of Law dean Wang Zhenmin said China needed to protect the interests of the city’s pro-Beijing tycoons.

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“Universal suffrage means the redistribution of economic interests amongst society,” he said. “The business community’s slice of pie will be shared by others. Their interests must be taken into consideration.”

While the business interests that currently dominate Hong Kong politics are “a small group of people, a small group of elites,” he said, “they control the destiny of Hong Kong.”

Arguing that Hong Kong’s democracy can be perfected gradually, he argued that no democracy is perfect, pointing to the example of slavery in the U.S. and the disenfranchisement of blacks and women.

Mr. Wang was one of two speakers at an event Thursday in Hong Kong discussing the legal framework that will ultimately shape the city’s future elections.

Such an argument echoes the position of the Hong Kong government, which advocates accepting Beijing’s vision of reform with the hope that it might be further reformed in the future. A government ad campaign airing such a message asks: “Want change? You have the vote, don’t you want it?”

Even within Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, there’s a split over what form universal suffrage should take. More radical factions say they will settle for nothing short of a system in which the public can directly nominate candidates for chief executive. Others are simply demanding that the final plan gives Hong Kong voters “genuine choice” on the ballot.

Also at the event, Mo Jihong, deputy director of the Law Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, emphasized that the laws of Hong Kong drew their authority from Chinese law and the Chinese Constitution of 1982.

During the panel, both Mr. Wang and Mr. Mo also discussed a white paper published in June by China’s cabinet laying out Beijing’s policies towards Hong Kong. It caused a furor in Hong Kong by declaring that “loving the country” was a basic requirement for all Hong Kong administrators, including judges and judicial personnel. In response, hundreds of Hong Kong lawyers staged a silent march through the city in protest.

Mr. Wang blamed the uproar on “insufficiency of mutual trust” between Hong Kong and China. In particular, he said that the translation of certain key phrases in the paper had led to misunderstandings. For example, the term “administrators” might have been better translated as “governors,” he said.

“The English version was prepared by English-language specialists, not by lawyers,” Mr. Wang said. He joked that he would suggest that the Chinese government employ him as an adviser when preparing similar documents in the future.

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